Load shedding
Cox's Bazar is the holiday spot of Bangladesh, however, due to frequent load shedding, life has become miserable in this beautiful tourist resort. On an average of 4 to 6 hours a day, we have no electricity in the town. This means approximately 35 hours without electricity a week. Consequently, business, offices, fish and ice factories, hotels, schools, computers, copy machines and electronics etc. stay inactive for at least 4 to 5 days a week (if we presume that one normal working day consists of 8 hours). In other words, this problem results in a loss of 16 full working days a month, or almost 3 full working weeks (if we count Friday as the weekly holiday)! Moreover, if the electricity supply is restored, the voltage output is so poor that it becomes impossible to run a computer most of the time. It has to be mentioned that the influential people of the town stay out of the heat, due to a special "V.I.P.-line" running through their neighbourhood (they have 24 hours electricity). Presuming that the dramatic electricity situation in most parts of the country is the same, we would like to ask the honourable law-makers and politicians, which country can afford such an enormous loss of precious working time.
Furthermore, your newspaper published an article about the problems of the "lone hydroelectric power plant of Kaptai". Out of 5 units, only two units are providing electricity. The remaining 3 are out of order due to poor
maintenance and negligence.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. But this power plant was set up in the early 1960s, under Pakistani rule, 11 years before our liberation. We, independent Bangladeshi people, are still dependent on old and poorly maintained installations.